Now you can get the top stories from Kotaku delivered to your inbox. Enter your email below.
By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
As a man about to embark on a 20-hour flight, comments like this — from Blizzard’s Rob Pardo in response to the news Diablo III requires a constant internet connection — make me pull little sad faces.
Diablo 3 Will Require Players to be Online When Playing [1UP]
The Cheapest NBN 1000 Plans
Looking to bump up your internet connection and save a few bucks? Here are the cheapest plans available.
haha. Agreed. 🙂
How cool would it be if you could multiplay that one with other people on the flight?
This was a big disappointment from me, seeing as the only time I ever played multiplayer on Diablo II was LAN with my friends with drinks, etc. We had an absolute ball doing this and it was a fairly regular thing.
Apart from that, all my time on Diablo II was single player. I must have gone through the game about 50 times over the years.
It won’t affect me too much seeing as my gaming computer is a desktop and always connected to the internet but it’s a huge annoyance. I can see a lot of lost sales resulting from this and I feel a lot of people that still want to play the game will resort to pirating to bypass the DRM.
I however, will be making this a day one purchase.
I’m annoyed by the decision, even though it won’t really affect me, I just hope that they don’t use the same system of net-code that they have for multiplayer SC2, as the lag is just enough to piss me off. I can understand if people don’t buy it because of this, but, like you, it’ll be a day one purchase for me.
I’m pretty sure I read somewhere they weren’t using the same system as SC2 because of that issue..don’t quote me on that as I may be wrong or it could have just been speculation.
They’d have to f**k it up pretty bad for me to not buy it as I’m a huge fan of the Diablo series. I’ve read and own all the books as well, actually not a bad read, especially the Sin War Trilogy.
I think they’ve implemented some pretty cool stuff in DIII, I like the idea of the runes completely changing the way a spell works.
I’ll assume that, at least for singleplayer, it will work like the “vs. ai” games in SC2, where it’s run off your computer, and just does the internet checks/friends list stuff.
And I’ll admit, I’m pretty excited, I didn’t actually play all that much of Diablo 1 (I’d reach the Butcher and just die over and over again), and I never finished Diablo 2 (because I’m a bad person), but I do like the look of the changes.
Here’s hoping I can get into the D3 beta *crosses fingers*
Man I hope so too. I keep reapplying for it, just in case I’ve somehow been dropped by the list 😛 haha don’t feel bad man. I only played through to the end a few times, most of the play through’s involved me starting a new character and then getting up to the 5th act and then something else would distract me!
I never passed Diablo 1 when it first came out, but probably about 3 or 4 years ago I made myself play through and I actually had a lot of fun. Although it’s a relatively short game, only 14 levels of the dungeon from memory.
11+ Million play WoW which is online only, so you are correct, he won’t care if everyone plays it or not, they will still rake in the profits.
difference being that WoW is actually an online game though.
SP section in any game should never require an internet connection
Agreed… I’ve heard people wailing about the lack of offline play, but Blizzard is all for Mutliplayer… I happily played through the SC2 single player without problems on my desktop while logged in, I play on my Xbox in Single player while still logged into Live.
Broadband is readily available to 99% of the country and those that want to play the game will likely already be on the internet (if you aren’t, how the frak are you reading this comment?). The requirements for LAN to play Diablo 3 have come a long way since D2 with the above mentioned readily available broadband.
Stop whinging people, the game will still sell like hot cakes and everyone will forget about this whole “controversy” the same way everyone has already forgotten about SC2 not having LAN.
I see that a lot of the controversy is overblown, but surely there is another solution – how about a check in/check out system for instance. Before I go, I basically tick an option saying I’m taking the game offline and it allows me to, with the caveat that I won’t be able to patch/play online or some other method of dumbing it down that is linked to a b.net account.
I’m sure there are problems with what I’ve suggested above, but what I’m suggesting is that it shouldn’t be all or nothing. Although D3 won’t be out in time, I have a 23.5 hour flight in October. If Diablo 3 was out then, i’d love to be settling in for a long flight of clicking.
I guess a lot of the problems relate to the item store, and related stuff like that, but surely, with all their powers, they could have an offline mode that is completely separate? IIRC your single player and multiplayer characters were separate in Diablo 1 and 2, and while it would be annoying to have split data given the whole Battle.net 2.0 system, I think it could still work.
My main concern about a system like this is not so much my end of the equation as the developer’s. Game servers go down, and I can’t play so much as single-player? Not a good proposition.
It becomes an issue when a group of friends can no longer rent out a local hall to have a good old LAN with drinks, laughs and good time due to said hall having no internet. I feel like I’ve been forced to enjoy my entertainment only in the comfort of my own home with a headset on. But then again I will still be looking to buy this despite online only DRM as general it won’t effect me all of the time
my only view is that SC2 actually requires a mouse and keyboard and is a pain in the arse to use with a trackpad.
Not to mention that their reasoning behind why they have an always online connection can be solved simply by having
Offline based characters which can be modded and the like but can only interact with other offline based characters and online based ones which are your competitive no hacks characters
Weird someone in his position would encourage gamers to play some other game besides the one he’s trying to sell.
These sorts of restrictions only hinder the legitimate consumers, pirates always get some cracked version which renders the DRM/always on stuff useless.
I spent a lot of time in the past playing Diablo(and it’s derivatives) over lan. So much so that it has become an integral part of the experience for Diablo, Titan Quest or Borderlands. This is severely disappointing.
So when Ubisoft does this, people freak out and get mad and say they’re evil.
When Blizzard does it, people seem to be ok with it.
I for one am not ok with it.
There are two reasons that people are less up-in-arms about it.
1: Spin. Ubisoft says “DRM” everyone goes “OH NOES, DRM!” Blizzard says “integration into our online Battle.net 2.0 system, which you’ll always need to be connected to.” Everyone goes “Cool, so it’s basically just WoW.”
2: Battle.Net. It actually works, and it works quite well. There’s a whole lot of integration in it that allows for a better experience, if you want it. I imagine if all this did was kick you out of the game if your net died, then there would be a whole lot more people complaining.
Except i dont want world of diablo.
If they wanted it to be World of Diablo AKA Mini MMO they should have told us 2 years ago
I think more to the point is when Ubisoft announced it, it was for their new Driver game. The last handful of Driver games have been crap, so no-one’s really looking all that forward to playing it.
Whereas almost everyone was looking forward to playing Diablo III, so I think a lot of people will start making justifications.
As for me, well I never condone piracy, so… that’s as far as I’m taking that sentence.
You forgot the awesome awesome “acheievements” their adding to further enhance the gaming experience..
Coz you know nothing is more awesome than having a window pop to say I’ve killed my 50th Skeleton! Go me! XD
when you lose internet connectivity with starcraft 2 when playing single player, a little dialog pops up saying you connect to battle.net lost, achievements may not be recorded
when you lose internet connectivity with ubisoft games you get kicked off the game.
There are other games to play… perhaps one of their competitors products?
I’m not really interested in the game so it doesn’t affect me, but just come right out and say it’s for DRM.
With all this spin and twisted logic it’s as bad as a government press conference.
You know what’s a great Diablo-esque game that doesn’t require a persistent online connection? Diablo 2.
This doesn’t feel like a huge shock after the lack of LAN support in Starcraft 2. I don’t like it, but it isn’t exactly a startling revelation, nor do I think Blizzard will give any amount of damns about the community backlash.
It also looks functionally identical to Diablo 2 ladder characters. Open Battle.net was plagued by hackers (or at the very least people using character editors), having the character files stored on Blizzard servers seems to have been the long standing solution to that problem.
except allowing offline characters which aren’t eligible for battle.net ladders or the AH(since they could hack items)
Allows anyone to play the way they want to with no detriment to the competitive section
IIRC… wasn’t it only Closed Characters that went on the D2 Ladder anyway?
So you could dupe.. but you would get wiped by BNet mods anyway =P
THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS THAT TH….
Wait a sec im a nerd, why would i leave my house? (cool face)
Talk about pushing people to piracy.
“There are other games t play on a laptop besides diablo 3”
“yeah, like RAZOR’s cracked version of diablo 3”
No money for you blizzard. I refuse to allow you to dictate how i play a game i purchase. If it ships like this i will simply pirate your game and you will get $0. Good work
Fact is there are other ways they could’ve handled this that didn’t turn consumers off.
Always online doesn’t gain them money since it will only turn people away. But it allows them to prevent mods.(acivision through and through)
And the whole hacking thing can be solved by creating Battle.Net Characters like last time that require an internet connection.
And offline based characters which can play MP against/With one another. but have no access to the AH. But are allowed to use all the mod content they want.
Rather not have a HC character die, because i had a Lag Spike or the like
Funnily enough one of the reasons for this “upgrade” was the fact apparently people “complained/didn’t like” the fact you had to create seperate sets of characters for Open/Single Player and for B.Net Closed.
I honestly did not care and AFAIK barely anyone cared. You used your open for solo or for messing around w/ mates at LAN (or if u were an ass to dupe and cheat =P) and Closed for random BNet parties. That being said I used my Open more because i prefered to LAN party or do passworded parties on Open w/ friends anyway…
Ironically enough, I won’t be buying it due to information released at that press conference… but not because of the always-online or the real money trading. It’s because they announced that you no longer can spend skills or traits on your character. Which means the only thing that distinguishes your character from everyone else’s is the shit that you’ve picked up/traded for/bought along the way.
They tried that with Assassins Creed 2. It kept dumping people out of the game and screwing with their saved games, not to mention the fact that anywhere without reliable inet means you’re pretty much screwed. Turned into a public relations fiasco and drove thousands of gamers to obtain the illegal crack just to play the game properly. And now Blizzard had decided that this is how they want to do Diablo 3. Bravo, nubcaeks. Bravo
Constant connection doesnt bother me, its the “real cash” so called “feature” that would legitimize gold farmer.
It still blows me away that people find a way to accept this – DRM, whatever. I pay full price for a game, I want to be able to play it, internet connection or not. I don’t care if broadband is ‘available to 99% of the country’ (which is entirely untrue, btw)
It proves to me how out of touch some companies are. Maybe it’s because I’m 30 and remember the days of hiring a hall for a LAN (aka warez and porn sharing weekend) but this has never sat right with me. Diablo and Diablo II’s foundations were in LAN gaming for me (and many other), and Battle.net was for when you couldn’t get the guys together for a LAN.
I dunno – there will probably be more than a few rebuttals for my argument, but all I’m asking is – why do they need to implement this bastard technology? They can’t say it’s for piracy, because there’ll be a workaround for the online component and god knows what else, soon enough.
Topping it off with a comment that basically amounts to ‘if you don’t like it, go play something else’ is the epitome of arrogance. They know they’ll get your money even if they shipped it encased in a steaming turd.
35 words. Are you serious?
I am getting tired of clicking on a link on my RSS feed, only to see the joke that the US writers call ‘game journalism’.
This is not reddit (which may I add often has more detailed and faster news then the US Kotaku). This is not a blog for Brian Ashcraft to spam his anime and cosplay news on. This is what used to be a great video game news site.
Mind you the Australian side is amazing… Just getting tired of this crap from Luke and Brian.
I cancelled my pre-order of this game when I heard the news. I am a laptop gamer, I travel frequentlyand don’t always have the option of always on internet connections.
The StarCraft 2 system is ok, but it kiled a lot of the traditional clan communities and has caused severe issues for modders with excessive restrictions on storage, and distribution.
There was once a time that the Internet offered the capacity to extend freedom and information. Now it feels like a chain tying our electronics to the end of a tether for a purpose, to control what we can do, to restrict what we can do with the products we purchase.
The thing I find stunning is that people will pay for the privilege of the restriction.
There are also other games to play on my desktop. And on my consoles. You know what, Blizz? You guys have a great point. I just won’t play your games.
easy solution have online and offline accounts if its an offline accounts you cant play multi with it only lan etc but if its online you must be online to play multi or single. PROBLEM SOLVED.
Leave a Reply